England World Cup warning

Raising hopes: Lennart Johansson said England has a good chance

By Mihir Bose

12:01AM GMT 03 Nov 2006

The Government have been warned that their bid to stage the World Cup in England in 2018 must not be pitched as a British tournament. Sports Minister Richard Caborn said yesterday that it was Chancellor Gordon Brown's hope that a successful bid would result in matches taking place "all over the country, which would bring Scotland, Wales and the whole of England into play."

A spokesman for Caborn later stressed that the Minister did not mean matches would be played in Wales or Scotland, and David Will, the Fifa vice-president who represents the four British nations on the world body, said: " If England win the right tostage the 2018 Cup, it would be impossible for matches to be played in Scotland and Wales. As far as Fifa is concerned Scotland and Wales are, in footballing terms, as much a foreign country as England and France are.

Caborn's comments followed a meeting on Wednesday between Lennart Johansson, the Uefa president, and the Chancellor. Johansson, who is seeking re-election against a strong challenge from Michel Platini, said Uefa would like every third World Cup to come back to Europe, and that England would stand a good chance of successfully bidding for the competition in 2018. The 2010 World Cup is being held in South Africa, with the 2014 tournament set to go to a South American country.

Johansson, meanwhile, expressed surprise that his fellow executive member, Eggert Magnusson, wants to buy West Ham. "I wonder where the money comes from," Johansson said of the Icelander. "He is coming to talk to me. He has double loyalties if he comes through with such a thing — and if that happens my personal view is that he shouldn't sit on the executive committee of Uefa."

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Mike Lee, who is acting as PR adviser to Johansson and Magnusson, said the Icelander would step down from his position on the Uefa executive committee and as president of the Icelandic FA should his West Ham takeover succeed.

Johansson will be 77 on Sunday and, if re-elected in January, will turn 80 in office. He robustly defended the age issue by saying that despite two bouts of cancer in recent years he was now in excellent health.

He also made it clear that he was standing only because nobody else wanted to oppose 51-year-old Platini, the three-time European player of the year.

"It is not something that I begged for," Johansson said. "But nobody else stood up to give an alternative to my opponent, so I have to do it. I have to protect what I and my colleagues have established through the years. I am very proud that the members of the Uefa executive committee have never been accused of any bribery or misbehaviour.

"It's one thing to play football on the pitch. It's another to look after the problems of 52 nations. You cannot just walk in from the outside."